Daily Archives: July 27, 2010

FIRE: “Nearly three years after she was terminated over her protected classroom speech, the San José/Evergreen Community College District (SJCCD) has agreed to pay adjunct professor June Sheldon $100,000 in lost earnings in exchange for dismissal of her First Amendment lawsuit . . . On July 16, 2008, the Alliance Defense Fund and attorneys from the Pacific Justice Institute filed a lawsuit against the district and several administrators involved in her case.”

First Amendment Center: “A dress-code dispute over an anti-abortion T-shirt will head to trial in late August, after a federal district judge said it was an open question whether officials prohibited a student from wearing her shirt with pictures of fetuses because of its viewpoint or because it was too graphic . . . In April 2008, a sixth-grade student at McSwain Union Elementary School in Merced, Calif., wore an anti-abortion shirt during the week of state standardized testing.”

Kingsport Times-News: “The Hawkins County Commission isn’t expected to consider approval of a “Foundations of American Law and Government” display in the new Justice Center at least until its August monthly meeting . . . Hawkins County received a letter dated July 23 from the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation claiming that the proposed display is unconstitutional and violates separation of church and state . . . [Juvenile Court Judge James Taylor] suggested that the commission seek legal advice from County Attorney Jim Phillips regarding the FFRF’s legal claims opposing the plaque. Taylor also suggested that commissioners consult with their constituents and search their own hearts before casting a vote on whether or not to approve the display.”

Pat Buckley: “Pro- Life groups in Ireland have expressed both dismay and deep concern at the new shape of the Irish Supreme Court given the recent nomination of High Court judge Justice Liam McKechnie, to the Court, to replace Justice Hugh Hugh Geoghegan, who retired recently.”

Irish Times: “Ireland had both the highest birth rate and the lowest death rate in the European Union in 2009, according to new figures from Eurostat. Overall, Ireland recorded the highest natural growth in population among member states, but was also responsible for the biggest net outflow of people.”

Scripps News: “Winery owners are concerned about plans before the Riverside County Planning Commission to open the door for more places of worship in the 12-square-mile region. They fear more churches will make it harder to protect vineyards with pesticides or obtain licenses to serve alcohol.”

Aolnews.: “‘The university has told Jennifer Keeton that if she doesn’t change her beliefs, she can’t stay in the program,’ [David French], senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, told FoxNews.com. ‘She won’t even have a chance to counsel any students; she won’t have a chance to get a counseling degree; she’ll be expelled.’”

Adventist News Network: “Seventh-day Adventist religious liberty proponents are monitoring a proposal from a European Parliament member who wants businesses in Europe to close their doors on Sundays. Parliament member Martin Kastler of Germany is urging for the passage of continent-wide laws similar to those of his home country, which encourage employees to take a day off work to be with their families, the New York Times reported . . . While many Adventists in Europe now live and worship in countries with similar laws, the church has traditionally opposed such laws, citing possible religious discrimination.”

ADF Attorney David French writing at Speak Up Movement / University: Late yesterday afternoon we received word that the federal district court granted the university’s motion for summary judgment dismissing Julea Ward’s case against officials from Eastern Michigan University. The opinion contains a cascading series of assumptions that made it virtually impossible for Julea to prevail, and we will appeal promptly. | ADF News Release

Media Newswire: “The court ruled in EMU’s favor and dismissed all claims brought by Ward and the Alliance Defense Fund Center for Academic Freedom. ‘We are pleased that the court has upheld our position in this matter,’ said Walter Kraft, vice president for communications at Eastern Michigan University. ‘Julea Ward was not discriminated against because of her religion. To the contrary, Eastern Michigan is deeply committed to the education of our students and welcomes individuals from diverse backgrounds into our community.’”

Associated Press: “A coalition of seven western states and three Canadian provinces on Tuesday offered its most detailed strategy yet for controlling greenhouse gas emissions blamed for climate change, saying they hope it will stand as a model for national systems in the United States and Canada.”

The Courier: “Martin Miller (26), previously jailed for stalking a 12-year-old girl, believes the ruling breaches his human rights as it interferes with his ‘fundamental freedom.’ Papers launched at Perth Sheriff Court claim the ban impinges on his rights as set out in the European Convention . . . However, Sheriff Michael Fletcher disagreed and said the conditions could stand.”

Detroit Free Press: “Lawyers for a national religious liberty group said they plan to appeal a federal judge’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a former Eastern Michigan University graduate student who said she was kicked out of a master’s program because she refused on religious grounds to counsel a homosexual client. ‘There are aspects of the decision that present appealable issues and we disagree with the court on his conclusions,’ [David French], a lawyer for Alliance Defense Fund said today.” | ADF News Release

The Vancouver Sun: “The children of gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual parents have been dubbed the ‘gayby boom.’ . . . Statistics Canada tallied more than 45,000 same-sex couples in Canada in 2006, of which 7,465 were married. Same-sex couples represented 0.6 per cent of all couples in Canada, with just over half being men . . . Based on those figures, a rough calculation would put the number of these families in Canada at a little over 4,000. But this is an underestimate, says Katherine Arnup, a Carleton University historian who studies Canadian families.”

Bloomberg: “The New York City Police Department will increase foot patrols at mosques during Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting that begins in August, as hate crimes against Muslims have increased from last year.”

LifeNews: “Democrats failed on Tuesday to get enough votes to stop a republican filibuster against the DISCLOSE Act. That’s the campaign finance reform bill pro-life groups oppose because they say it would place stringent limits on their ability to communicate to the public about legislation and elections.”

ChristianNewsWire: “UAB administrators ordered the young people off of the campus claiming that the public university was actually ‘private property.’ When Kristina Garza, Survivors’ new Campus Life Tour director, asked the UAB administrator what right he had to order the group off of public property, the UAB official refused to speak with Garza and would not even provide his name. UAB police responded to the call by administrators and within two minutes arrested the two activists for failing to heed the unreasonable demand to leave the campus and for videotaping the incident. LLDF attorneys made several calls to UAB’s general counsel. Within a few hours, the young people were released from jail with no criminal charges.”

Sandy Levinson writes at Balkinization: “I argued in my previous post that Joe Biden should declare that the Senate is not a continuing body and,therefore, that it can modify its rules by a majority vote, without facing a filibuster. Does this necessarily mean that the filibuster should be abolished lock, stock, and barrel? I think this is quite literally debatable, and I see two circumstances where we might want to retain the filibuster, even if, for example, we might want to drop the number of votes required to break a filibuster from, say, 60 to 55 . . . ” | Via FedSoc Blog

Las Vegas TSG Business News: “Today, Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) renewed his call for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to revise the current lifetime ban that prevents gay men from donating blood.”

Catholic News Agency: “An expert on family issues reminded Mexicans last week that the defense of life is not a religious issue and that it is based on the scientific certainty that life begins at conception.”

ABC: “Abdollahi, a 24 year-old Iranian who was raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan, came to the U.S. as a child when his parents immigrated to study at a state university. He says he learned of his undocumented status in high school, which is also when he first began identifying as a gay man . . . ‘He’s looking at having to prove greater than 50 percent chance of persecution, a clear probability of persecution,’ said D.C.-based immigration attorney Kimberley Schaefer, who handles asylum cases.”

The Washington Post / College, Inc.: “A groundbreaking study by researchers at the University of Virginia and George Washington University finds that children adopted by lesbian and gay male couples develop just as well as those adopted by heterosexual parents.” (Note the nature of study sample)

The Florida Times-Union: “In a memo released Monday, Webb outlined his prayer policy and how other faith leaders will be rotated during about two dozen meetings the council will hold over the next year.”

Tulsa World: “Haskell County must pay the ACLU of Oklahoma $199,000, covering all costs and attorney fees, Thornton said . . . [Kevin Theriot] of the Alliance Defense Fund, which is representing the Haskell County commissioners, confirmed that the settlement was reached last week, but said they had no comment in regard to the settlement.”

ACLU: “If all goes well, the Portland Masjid and Islamic Center will receive approval tonight for the establishment of a small mosque in Maine’s largest, and most ethnically diverse, city. It is the culmination of a five-year effort, which has included numerous meetings, one federal lawsuit, and an entire re-writing of the city’s zoning rules for places of worship.”

MLive.com: “Republican congressional candidate Majed Moughni on Monday led a small rally on the steps of Dearborn City Hall in support of four Christian evangelists arrested for disturbing the peace last month at the Arab International Festival.”

News4Jax.com: “Just days into the Republican runoff for governor in Georgia, abortion has emerged as a polarizing issue in a race where social conservatives will hold sway. Karen Handel — on the defensive over a 2005 vote to funnel $425,568 to Planned Parenthood — has been feuding with Georgia Right to Life and has called for the anti-abortion group’s leaders to step down. After attacking Handel’s abortion record, Deal is facing questions of his own 1993 vote as a Democrat in Congress to authorize $500 million in funding for Planned Parenthood.”

Arizona Daily Star: “Josie Claudine Romero was born Joseph Manalang Romero in Colorado in April 2001. Her twin sister died shortly after being born. Though biologically male, “Joey” was diagnosed with a condition called gender identity disorder at the age of 5 by a U.S. military doctor in Japan, where the family was living. By age 6, Joey was Josie . . . Seven children under the age of 12 attend an informal group of Tucson-area ‘gender-variant’ children Josie’s mother organizes. Some of the kids consider themselves transgender and, like Josie, are living as the opposite sex. Others don’t feel comfortable with traditional gender norms and labels.”

ACLJ / Jay Sekulow’s Trial Notebook: “I want to share with you an important victory for religious freedom involving one of our clients – a woman from Iran who left Islam and converted to Christianity . . . One of our legal teams worked with her and her family and ultimately succeeded in getting the United States government to grant her asylum in this country.”

ChristianNewsWire: “LifeGuard will hold a press conference on Thursday, July 29, to divulge the details of the ongoing relationship between Catholic hospital Mercy Regional Medical Center and abortion provider Grossman.”

ChristianNewsWire: “Colorado’s Personhood Amendment 62, sponsored by Colorado Right to Life and Personhood Colorado, has announced their strategy to promote the life-affirming Personhood Amendment 62 . . . The official 62 campaign strategy includes the groundbreaking website, mycampaigntracker.org, which was designed to capitalize on the grassroots personhood movement in Colorado, and will be utilized to saturate the state with grassroots activity through November’s election.” | Colorado Fetal Personhood, Amendment 62 (2010) on Ballotpedia

The Christian Post: “Newt Gingrich, a Republican former Speaker of the House, wrote on his blog last week that there should be no mosque near Ground Zero if there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia.The term Cordoba, Gingrich stressed, refers to Cordoba, Spain, ‘the capital of Muslim conquerors who symbolized their victory over the Christian Spaniards by transforming a church there into the world’s third-largest mosque complex.’” | Newt Gingrich statement on the proposed “Cordoba House” mosque near Ground Zero

Marcia Segelstein writing at OneNewsNow: “[W]hile most people may think of men when they picture purveyors of pornography, women are joining their ranks in droves. A big part of the problem – for both men and women – is the easy accessibility of porn. Thanks to the Internet, it’s not even necessary to leave your house. Anonymity feeds temptation. A survey conducted in 2003 by Today’s Christian Woman found that one out of every six women, including Christians, admits struggling with an addiction to pornography.”

Education News: “According to a recent Newsweek article titled ‘The Creativity Crisis,’ research shows that American creativity is declining for the first time. If this trend continues, the nation’s economic and national security will be at risk . . . Dr. Kyung Hee Kim, assistant professor of education at the College of William & Mary, analyzed the data and found that American creativity scores began to fall in 1990 after having risen steadily for decades. And they have been falling significantly ever since. The reasons why are not clear.”

LifeNews: “Like their counterparts in the Senate, House Democrats are refusing to hold a hearing on the recess appointment of rationing advocate Donald Berwick, whom President Barack Obama named to become the director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services.”

The National Law Journal: “The military’s ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy fails to set forth a government interest that warrants intruding on the constitutionally protected rights of openly homosexual members to serve, the Log Cabin Republicans argued as the trial in the organization’s challenge to the policy wound down on Friday. … Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Freeborne, defending the policy for the government, replied: ‘Log Cabin has endeavored to spend the last few weeks presenting the court with a policy debate — a debate it lost in 1993 before Congress. Congress exhaustively considered the same matters that plaintiffs rest their experts’ opinions on.’” | Related: At closing arguments, Log Cabin Republicans ask for halt to “don’t ask, don’t tell”

SDGLN (San Diego Gay & Lesbian News): “The total buying power of the U.S. lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) adult population in 2010 is projected to be $743 billion, according to the recently updated analysis.”

Army.mil: “Only about 10 percent of the 400,000 servicemembers asked to complete a survey about possible repeal of the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law have responded so far, and DoD officials said they need to hear from the rest.”

LifeSiteNews: “Spain’s socialist government has fined the Intereconomia television network 100,000 euros (130,000 USD) for running a series of advertisements that it claims ‘attacks the dignity’ of homosexuals.”

LifeNews: “Sponsored by Heartbeat International, the Heartbeat’s Babies Go to Congress campaign provides an opportunity on Capitol Hill for women to speak publicly about their gratitude for the pregnancy support they received when faced with an unexpected pregnancy.”

Associated Press: “A Malaysian court fined 12 Muslims on Tuesday and sentenced one of them to a week in prison for illegally protesting the construction of a Hindu temple and parading a severed cow’s head.”

Diane Singer writing at BreakPoint: “‘The small group of activists who are pushing to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell” are conveniently ignoring the dramatic legal impact of the legislation upon the religious liberties of thousands of chaplains and service members,’ said ADF litigation counsel [Daniel Blomberg]. ‘The nature of the proposed repeal is an alarming signal that religious liberty, free speech, and even national security have taken a back seat to the homosexual legal agenda.’”

The American Catholic: “The Alliance Defense Fund which is representing Dr. Howell, sent a letter to the University of Illinois on July 12, demanding his reinstatement. Read the letter here. The Alliance Defense Fund highlights the absurdity of this situation rather well with this statement: ‘A university cannot censor professors’ speech–including classroom speech related to the topic of the class–merely because certain ideas “offend” an anonymous student,’ said ADF Senior Counsel [David French]. ‘To fire a professor for teaching the actual subject matter of his course is outrageous. It’s ridiculous that a school would fire a professor without even giving him a chance to defend himself when he simply taught Catholic beliefs in a class about Catholic beliefs.’” | ADF News Release

The United Families International: “Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorneys filed suit against the university on Keeton’s behalf on First Amendment grounds. According to ADF, university faculty said Keeton’s beliefs are unethical and incompatible with the counseling profession, saying it would hinder her ‘ability to be a multiculturally competent counselor, particularly with regard to working with gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning populations.’”

OneNewsNow: “‘Here we have a student trying to silence a professor under the guise of being — quote — “offended,” whatever that means, and the professor was simply doing her job,’ notes attorney [David Hacker] of the Alliance Defense fund (ADF), the legal alliance representing Sheldon.” | ADF News Release

Herald-Journal: “Officials from Spartanburg County and the cities of Woodruff and Aiken spent part of the afternoon discussing the matter with state Attorney General Henry McMaster and numerous attorneys aligned with the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian organization, either in person or via conference call. … McMaster offered counsel after the Madison, Wis.-based Freedom From Religion Foundation sent letters to Spartanburg County Council and city councils in Woodruff and Aiken expressing concern over their respective policies regarding prayer in public meetings — and asking each to end the practice of praying at meetings. … The Freedom From Religion Foundation also told Woodruff leaders in a letter that the city must immediately remove the cross from its city seal.”

Chicago Pride: “‘Simply put, the university is imposing thought reform,’ said ADF Senior Counsel [David French]. ‘This type of leftist zero-tolerance policy is in place at far too many universities, and it must stop.’”

Washington Times: “‘It’s hard to conceive of a more blatant violation of her right to freedom of speech and her freedom of conscience,’ said [David French], senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative-leaning group that defends religious freedom. ‘This type of leftist zero-tolerance policy is in place at far too many universities, and it must stop.’” | ADF News Release

College News: “Keeton is being represented by the Alliance Defense Fund—a coalition of Christian writers who have represented clients in similar suits. The Fund is also representing an Eastern Michigan University student who was dismissed from the school’s counseling program because of her beliefs on homosexuality.” | ADF News Release

“Religious organizations face a choice between altering their core beliefs or forfeiting privileges enjoyed by others. The liberal state and its institutions face a choice between being faithful to the democratic principle of open access or closing the liberal door to those who are illiberal . . . ”

Fox News: “[David French], senior counsel at the Alliance Defense Fund, which filed the lawsuit against Augusta State University on Keeton’s behalf, said no university has the right to force a citizen to change their beliefs on any topic. ‘The university has told Jennifer Keeton that if she doesn’t change her beliefs, she can’t stay in the program,’ he told FoxNews.com. ‘She won’t even have a chance to counsel any students; she won’t have a chance to get a counseling degree; she’ll be expelled.’” | ADF News Release

Sioux City Journal: “Iowa ended a four-year slide in the number of couples getting married last year, but experts say the turnaround could have been aided in part by an April 2009 court ruling that legalized same-sex marriages. Also, Iowa posted the lowest number of divorces since 1970 with 7,286 dissolutions, according to preliminary statistics issued by the state Department of Public Health.”

Schwartz, David L. and Petherbridge, Lee, The Use of Legal Scholarship by the Federal Courts of Appeals: An Empirical Study (July 15, 2010). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1640681

hief Justice Roberts recently explained that he does not pay much attention to law review articles, reportedly stating that they are not “particularly helpful for practitioners and judges.” Chief Justice Roberts’s criticism echoes that made by other judges, some of whom, like Judge Harry Edwards, have been much more strident in the contention that legal scholarship is largely unhelpful to practitioners and judges. Perhaps inspired by criticisms like those leveled by Chief Justice Roberts and Judge Edwards, legal scholars have sought to investigate the relevance of legal scholarship to courts and practitioners using a variety of means. One avenue of investigation has been empirical, where several studies, using different, and sometimes ambiguous, methodologies have observed a decrease in citation to legal scholarship and interpreted the observation to mean that legal scholarship has lost relevance to courts and practitioners.

The study reported here examines the hypothesis that legal scholarship has lost relevance to courts. Using an original dataset that is substantially more comprehensive than previous studies and empirical techniques, it examines citation to legal scholarship by the United States circuit courts of appeals over the last 59 years. It finds a rather surprising result. Contrary to the claims of Justice Roberts and Judge Edwards, and contrary to the results of prior studies, this study finds that over the last 59 years – and particularly over the last 20 years – there has been a marked increase in the frequency of citation to legal scholarship in the reported opinions of the circuit courts of appeals. Using empirical and theoretical methods, this study also considers explanations for courts’ increased use of legal scholarship.

How Appealing has posted this piece that appeared in the Daily Journal by Lawrence Hurly. It begins: ”As election season approaches, confusion reigns over how the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent landmark campaign finance ruling that eased restrictions on independent corporate-funded expenditures will influence events. Multiple questions are being debated by campaign finance experts, including whether corporations and unions will seek to exploit their new freedoms, how the Federal Election Commission will respond, and how much information the public will have about the paymasters behind TV attack ads.”

” . . . Those promoting this strategy of incrementalism have always argued that it will advance the long term goal of providing legal protection for all unborn children. However, this strategy of incrementalism has still been controversial . . . ”

Religion Clause Blog: TPMDC [includes video] reported yesterday that Tennessee Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, a candidate in the state’s gubernatorial primary (currently running third), suggested in an answer to a question at a campaign event that Islam may not be protected by the Constitution’s free exercise clause. Referring to a dispute over a zoning change to permit an Islamic center to be built in Murfreesboro (TN) . . . ”

Religion Clause Blog: “In Hinzman v. Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, (Fed. Ct. App., July 6, 2010), Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal held than an American soldier’s application for permanent residency as a refugee based on “humanitarian and compassionate” grounds may be granted when his refusal to deploy to Iraq was based on a sincere and deeply held moral, political or religious objection to a particular war . . . ”

Findlaw Summary: “In a First Amendment challenge to Virginia’s Personal Information Privacy Act, which prohibits intentionally communicating another individual’s social security number to the general public, judgment of the district court is affirmed in part, reversed in part and remanded where: 1) the First Amendment does reach plaintiff’s publication of Virginia land records containing unredacted SSNs; 2) district court’s August 22, 2008 decision is affirmed as enforcing section 59.1-443.2 against plaintiff for the Virginia land records posted on her website would violate the First Amendment as Virginia’s failure to redact SSNs before placing land records online means that barring plaintiff’s protected speech would not be narrowly tailored to Virginia’s interest in protecting individual privacy; 3) there is a lack of jurisdiction to consider whether the First Amendment prohibits Virginia from enforcing section 59.1-443.2 against plaintiff for publishing non-Virginia public records containing unredacted SSNs; and 4) district court’s June 2, 2009 decision entering a permanent injunction is reversed as the district court abused its discretion by not tailoring the scope of the remedy to fit the nature and extent of the constitutional violation.”

The Hill: “Under the Democrats’ new healthcare reform bill, companies, nonprofits and government offices are required to file 1099 forms with the IRS when goods purchased from another business exceed $600 in a year. Under previous law, the reporting requirement pertained only to services exceeding that amount.”

“This Note advocates for the adoption of individual state religious freedom restoration acts (RFRAs) to reinstate the strict scrutiny standard for all laws restricting religious activity. State RFRAs represent a viable alternative to the current methodology for analyzing free exercise claims in the context of religiously based refusals to administer health care. The enactment of these statutes will afford medical professionals the chance to keep their jobs while remaining true to their religious beliefs, as well as balance the scales between the free exercise of religion and the equal protection rights of patients.”

“In recent decades, advances in medical technology have given pregnant women and their doctors an unprecedented level of information about, and control over, the course of a pregnancy. As a result, women and their physicians may make thousands of decisions over the course of the nine-month gestational period, determining everything from the method of conception to the method of delivery. This transformation of reproduction, including labor and delivery, from a natural, woman-centered process to a medical journey is frequently referred to as the ‘medicalization of childbirth.’ This medicalization poses a host of moral, ethical, medical, and legal problems that arise when a woman’s desires concerning the time, place, and manner of her labor and delivery do not mesh with the recommendations and advice of her doctors. One type of desired delivery that often brings patients and obstetricians into conflict is when a woman wishes to deliver via vaginal birth after having delivered one or more previous children via cesarean section, a process popularly referred to as ‘VBAC.’”